A/N: Hello everyone, here's the newest chapter. We're back at Hogwarts!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Recap: So, the last time we saw the Hogwarts kids Rose had decided to give Scorpius a chance; Gryffindor won their first quidditch game, but their keeper was crap so James was going to ask Rose to join the team; Freddie was still trying to immaturely flirt with Norah; and James convinced him mother to bring a scout from the Holyhead Harpies to come to the game and watch Selene.
Dizzying Heights and Kisses
Wednesday, November 30th 2022
7:35 PM
Freddie Weasley grunted exasperatedly as he levitated a tall ladder into the Great Hall. He walked over to the large windows at the far end of the Hall –ladder in tow– and did his best to dodge flying Christmas decorations and fretful fifth-year prefects as he went. He wanted to roll his eyes at the anxiety-riddle prefects, but if he was getting ordered about by the prattish Head Boy from Ravenclaw Will Dyson like those fifth-years were, he'd probably be running around like a chicken with his head cut-off too.
Or he'd hex the git.
Yes, he'd probably hex the git.
As it was, he wasn't entirely sure why he was in the middle of the annual Hogwarts Christmas decorating extravaganza. Since it was the last day of November, and most importantly the next day was to be the first day of December, the prefects and Head Girls and Boys were busy decorating the entire castle for Christmas. Freddie though, wasn't a prefect or a head, so he couldn't remember why he was stuck helping with the decorating when he should have been back in the Gryffindor common room trying to come up with increasingly more extravagant ways to get Norah Summers's attention.
Freddie made it through the obstacle course of decorations and fifth-years, all the way up to the front of the Hall where James was pulling magical buckets of paint and paint brushes out of a cardboard box.
"How did we get roped into helping out with the decorating again?" Freddie asked his cousin and best mate.
"Because we like to give back to society," James replied primly and with a large smirk.
Someone scoffed from behind them, "No, it's because you two idiots decided to almost get caught pulling a prank a few days ago and I had to make you two volunteer to help decorate so that you wouldn't end up with detention."
Freddie rolled his eyes at the Head Girl that was giving them a reprimand, "Yes Spiros, because this is so much better than a detention."
"An official detention would have been accompanied by a suspension from this Saturday's quidditch game if Will Dyson had caught you, so you're getting off extremely light," Selene Spiros reminded Freddie in her stern 'Head Girl' voice.
Freddie mumbled something under his breath, but it did seem as though at least part of the chastisement hit home.
James on the other hand, had to hold in a chuckle and a smirk throughout her speech, if only because Selene was the only Head or prefect, that Freddie wasn't related to, that James had seen his best mate actually listen to.
Freddie deposited the tall ladder where Selene directed him to put it, and then scampered away to help some fifth-years put fairy lights on the large Christmas trees scattered throughout the Great Hall. Peeves seemed to be doing his best to undermine the work of the prefects, and a few of them were narrowly avoiding getting strangle by the strands of lights.
"And how close exactly do you think Dyson would have been to figuring out that Freddie and I pulled that prank?" James asked Selene curiously.
Selene shrugged, "Not sure exactly. I mean Dyson is a Ravenclaw, but I don't think he would have exactly been right on your trail. Also, if he did figure out that Freddie did it, I doubt he would have figured out that it was Hugo that was his accomplice and not you."
"I knew that you knew that I had nothing to do with it!" James exclaimed as he handed Selene a small paint can and a paint brush.
"Of course I knew that you weren't involved, at least not this time. C'mon Potter, give me some credit," Selene teased him.
James rolled his eyes at her, but he couldn't hold in his grin, "Then why did you give both Freddie and me detention Spiros?"
"Because we needed the help decorating or we wouldn't get it done before midnight Potter."
James shook his head but chuckled, "Alright, you win this round. That was pretty clever."
"Thanks. Now hold the ladder for me? I need to paint the pictures on the windows," Selene told him, gesturing to the large metal ladder she was about to climb up.
James did as he was told and he held onto the legs of the tall ladder as Selene slowly but smooth scaled it. She had spelled her paint containers and paint brushes to levitate beside her as she climbed about halfway up the ladder. When she got to the middle of the tall windows she pulled her wand out and magicked the paint brushes to start drawing winter and Christmas-themed scenes onto the set of large windows.
"Aren't you going to hand paint those?" James called cheekily up from the floor.
"If I had another twelve hours to work on them, sure," Selene retorted as one of her bewitched paintbrushes finished drawing three perfect circles to make a snowman.
James continued to make cheeky comments as Selene ordered the paintbrushes to paint this or that, and about a third of the windows were painted by the time it occurred to James to ask, "Selene . . . don't these ladders have stabilizing spells on them?"
"Probably," Selene replied succinctly.
"Then why do you have me holding it?" James questioned her curiously.
She continued to direct the brushes as she answered, "Just being extra safe."
He was about to respond with a quip about being afraid to fall off the ladder, when peeves suddenly appeared beside him, picked up the boxes of paint cans and decorations, and began throwing the boxes around. James cursed at him and let go of the ladder so he could pull out his wand and clean up the mess Peeves was making.
"Why don't you go find Dyson and annoy him instead?"
James's suggestion made Peeves cackle and he flew away to find another student to torment, but not before the poltergeist picked up one last box of decorations and tossed it at the tall ladder.
The impact of the heavy box caused the ladder to sway, and before James could get back to holding its legs he heard a sharp shriek emit from where Selene was up on the ladder. She dropped her wand as she clung to the cold metal of the tipsy ladder, causing the bewitched paint cans and brushes to crash down to the floor below the windows. James grabbed the legs of the ladder as quickly as he could, and once he had it relatively steady he called up to Selene.
"Whoa, that was a bit of a ride wasn't it Selene? Do you need me to spell the paint cans and brushes back up to you?"
His house mate didn't respond immediately. James looked up to see Selene still clinging to the steps of the ladder with her eyes shut tight. She didn't respond to his question.
"Selene? Are you alright?" He would have thought that it was a ridiculous question to ask of his classmate considering that he'd seen her deal with much harder hits and near falls when she was on the quidditch pitch. She'd taken all of those in stride, so he wondered why she was so stunned after swaying a little on a ladder.
"Yeah," She replied, her voice sounding a little breathless, "I just need a minute."
James gave her three, and when she didn't start moving he spoke up again, "Is there something I can do to help from down here?"
Selene took a shaky breath and slowly opened her eyes, "I'm going to climb down. Could you distract me while I do?"
Even though he thought it was an odd request, James didn't voice his opinion. Instead he launched into a short story about the time he and Freddie magically dyed Victoire's hair green and how she almost turned them to ash because of it. As his story wound down, James watched Selene climb down the last few metal steps of the ladder. Her feet and her hands were shaky as she moved, and even when her feet touched solid ground her hands were still shaking a little. James inspected the pale colour of Selene's normally olive-toned skin, along with the anxiety that accompanied her every movement.
He frowned as he studied her. He was pretty sure he knew why she seemed so shaken, but it didn't make sense, "Selene . . . are you scared of heights?"
Selene exhaled loudly and held her slightly shaking hands together in front of her, "Yes."
James recognized the vulnerability in her face and her answer, and instead of asking her the main question that was floating through his mind, instead he said, "I was afraid of using knives to cut my food until I turned about thirteen, even butter knives. I was always worried that I'd accidentally cut myself instead."
She gave him an odd look as he continued, "I mean I'm not still scared of that now. Now my real fears tend to lean more towards fears of failure and inadequacy, but that butter knife thing did make my life difficult for a while."
Selene cracked a small smile at that.
"I'm surprised that you haven't yet asked me that burning question you must have about my fear of heights."
James shrugged, "I'm not going to push you to tell me something that you don't feel comfortable sharing."
"I don't mind telling you," Selene admitted, "You just have to promise not to tell anyone else."
"Cross my heart."
Selene pushed a piece of hair behind her ear, "Go ahead and ask away."
"Why do you play quidditch if you're afraid of heights?" James questioned.
A shy but bright smile lit up her face, "Because I love it. I love the action of the game and the wind blowing across my face when I'm on a break-away. I love flying and I love quidditch, but I hate heights."
"How are you able to handle it then? How can you play quidditch so well when you're also so high up in the air?"
"The movement of the game helps. When I'm busy playing I don't notice how high up I am. If I'm up high I need to move. Those few seconds when we take to the air and wait for Madam Hooch to blow her whistle are always the worst few seconds of my day. But once we get to fly, once we can take off I do my best to compartmentalize my fears and enjoy playing the game," Selene confessed.
James was amazed, "Wow."
She glanced at him in confusion, and there was a slight blush on her cheeks, "Pardon?"
"It's just–I'm impressed. When it comes to the things I fear I usually avoid them at all costs and only face them when someone makes me, you know like most people do. But you, you address your fear head-on. Almost every day," James explained.
Her face was filled with an embarrassed flush, "I just try to tackle it one day at a time. You'd think after playing quidditch almost daily for seven years I'd get over my fear of heights, but I haven't quite been able to conquer it yet."
"I'm sure you will, you seem very determined to me," James assured her sweetly.
"Thanks."
"And until you do, I promise to try to keep my mid-air pep talks to a minimum so that you don't have to float eighty feet in the air and listen to me drone on and on."
"I would appreciate that."
James smiled at her, "I think I'll take over painting the rest of the windows."
Surprisingly, Selene shook her head at him, "No. I'm Head Girl and it's my responsibility. I'll go back up there and finish just–just promise not to let go of the ladder while I'm up there?"
He placed his hand on his heart and promised, "Not even Peeves wielding a sword that he nicked from a suit of armour will make me let go this time."
Thursday, December 1st 2022
7:48 AM
When James went down to the common room the next morning he took the time to admire the Christmas decorations that were tastefully adorning the cozy looking room. The evening before when he, Freddie, Selene, Rose, and the other Gryffindor prefects had come back to Gryffindor tower after decorating the castle, they had realized that their common room was empty of Christmas décor. Selene had order everyone up to their dormitories to go to bed, but she must have stayed up later to decorate the room once everyone had gone to sleep.
James noticed Freddie standing by one of the windows with his owl, and watched his friend open up a window and send the owl off.
"Tell me that you didn't forget that it was your big sister's birthday yesterday," James called to his best mate as he walked through the common room to meet up with him.
Freddie scoffed, "Give me more credit than that mate. I owled Ally her birthday present yesterday morning, and she owled me a letter late last night. I wrote a response and I'm sending it out right now."
James had a few more paces to go before he got to where Freddie was standing by the window, but he was suddenly stopped mid-step and couldn't move his feet. James frowned down at his toes before he snapped his head up to look above his head.
Affixed to the roof above his head was a sprig of white mistletoe. James rolled his eyes at the mistletoe and muttered under his breath about Professor Longbottom and his obsession with mistletoe. The Herbology professor was the only person in the castle allowed to put up the traditional white and green plant, and he must have snuck into the common room early that morning before anyone woke up to put up the decoration.
Before James had to do something embarrassing like asking Freddie to come and kiss him on the cheek, several more Gryffindors trotted down the staircases from the girls' and boys' dormitories and began filling up the common room. Luckily for him, Mélanie was one of those people and she made a bee-line for her boyfriend when she saw him standing in the middle of the common room.
James smiled at her and wordlessly pointed up towards the ceiling where the green and white plant hung above his head. She nodded understandingly at him and closed the short distance between them. Mélanie reached up onto her tiptoes and pressed a rather heated kiss for before eight o'clock in the morning, onto James's lips. James kissed her back enthusiastically, and they probably would have stayed snogging if Freddie hadn't interrupted them.
Freddie strolled up to the blissfully ignorant couple who were sucking each other's faces off, and jabbed a cold piece of metal about a the size of his palm into the skin of James's cheek while declaring proudly, "10 points from Gryffindor for vomit inducing public indecency!"
James and Mélanie pulled away from each other, and James swiped away the raised piece of metal that Freddie was still pressing into the skin of his cousin's cheek.
"What in Hades Freddie?" James exclaimed as he continued to swipe at the metal.
Freddie pulled his hand away from James's face and the darker haired of the two noted that the piece of metal in Freddie's hand was a gold Head Girl badge.
"Give that back Weasley!" Selene Spiros yelled at the redhead as she suddenly appeared behind him. She slapped Freddie across the back of his head and when he yelped in surprise she grabbed her badge back from her classmate.
As she affixed her gold badge back onto her school robes she muttered, "Did you actually believe that I wouldn't notice that you accioed my badge away?"
"No," Freddie replied petulantly, "I just needed it for a minute. I'm done with it now anyway."
Selene rolled her eyes, but then she poked Freddie in the chest, "You're lucky that you don't actually have the authority to take house points away, badge in hand or not."
"I wouldn't have abused the power!" The redhead retorted.
The Gryffindor Head Girl scoffed, "Really? Well then what do you call exactly what you just did?" She gestured towards James and Mélanie to get her point across.
"That was necessary," Freddie defended as he also pointed at his cousin and his cousin's girlfriend, "Mélanie and James were playing tonsil quidditch when all she needed to do was give him a quick peck on the cheek to get him out of the mistletoe's spell."
Selene rolled her eyes, put her hands on her hips, and put on her best 'You-better-listen-to-me-because-I'm-Head-Girl-and-we-both-know-that-you're-in-the-wrong' look, "It's not up to you to decided who can kiss who and how under mistletoe Freddie."
Something behind Selene caught Freddie's attention and made it a huge grin spread across his face, "Alright, whatever you say Spiros."
Selene narrowed her eyes at her classmate, and turned around to see what he was looking at.
Across the common room, hoping down the last few steps of the staircase from the girls' dormitory was Norah Summers. When she landed at the bottom of the staircase she took a few steps forward only to suddenly stop. She looked like she was stuck in place. Norah looked above her head and visibly groaned when she saw a spring of red and green mistletoe over her head.
"Blood Hell," Norah announced as she glared at the décor.
Selene turned her narrowed gaze back on Freddie, "You're a Prat."
"What? I didn't do anything," Freddie replied in a faux innocent tone.
Beside her, Selene could hear both James and Mélanie scoff.
"Really? So you expect me to believe that it wasn't you that put up that red mistletoe? Who was it then? Professor Longbottom?" Selene's derisive tone made it perfectly clear that she believed that it was Freddie who put up the red mistletoe –which meant that the person trapped under it would need a kiss on the lips and not just the cheek– and not Professor Longbottom.
Freddie shrugged, "Maybe he ran out of white mistletoe and decided to throw in some red stuff because he wasn't done yet?"
Selene rolled her eyes, but before she could reprimand Freddie further, he announced that he was going to go over and see if he could help Norah out while her 'little problem'.
Unfortunately for Freddie, Norah seemed to think that getting stuck under some red mistletoe was rather suspect herself. As things had been going rather well between Freddie and Norah, in general she wouldn't have been opposed to kissing him under some red mistletoe. However, on principle Norah just knew that Freddie had something to do with her predicament, so when he came up to her she put her hand out and made him stop before he could get too close to her.
"Back off Freddie."
The redhead grinned at her, "I just thought I'd help you out of your little dilemma Norah."
His fellow beater narrowed her eyes at him, "Trust me Freddie I know exactly what you're thinking right now, and no, I don't want your help."
Freddie leaned back on his heels, "Alright, then how do you propose you'll get out of this?"
Norah glanced around at the housemates that were walking by her, but any of the males even remotely old enough to kiss her on the lips were scared off by Freddie's warning glares.
It took her a minute to find someone besides Freddie who she could convince to kiss her. Luckily though, she spotted one who was trying to sneak by her unnoticed.
Norah reached out as far as she could, grabbed the boy's arm, and then pulled him towards her so that she could press a kiss right on the younger redhead's lips. When Norah released Hugo Weasley, he looked dazed but quickly scampered off before his elder cousin could get his wand out to hex him.
Freddie frowned as he watched Hugo scurry away, but when he glanced back at Norah –who was happily stepping away from the red mistletoe– his expression was of grudging respect.
"Touché."
The rest of the day had Norah doing her best to dodge a rather persistent sprig of red mistletoe that only seemed to pop up whenever she was around. When she couldn't avoid it, she took great pleasure in telling Freddie –who always seemed to be around her when the mistletoe was– to piss off. She would then grab whoever was closest to her and kiss them to break the enchantment. When finished she would send Freddie a smirk and a raised eye brow, and he would grin back at her challenging expression.
By lunch time that day Norah had kissed Hugo Weasley, seventh-year Maxell Strike of Hufflepuff, Alice Longbottom's boyfriend Kieran Chang, and Donovan Lee a quiet fifth-year Slytherin.
At lunch time Rose Weasley and Albus Potter were laughing about the look that was on Kieran Chang's face when Alice offered his lips up to free Norah from the red mistletoe she was stuck under between their second and third classes.
"What are you two cackling about?" Scorpius Malfoy asked as he came up to the two cousins at the Gryffindor table.
"Just the entertainment Freddie and Norah have been so generously providing for us today," Al replied casually.
Scorpius rolled his eyes, "Those two are ridiculous."
The Slytherin sat down at the table in-between Al and Rose, and he grinned at the blush that spread across Rose's cheeks when he accidentally-on-purpose ran his hand down her arm. Even though Scorpius only touched the fabric of her school uniform, Rose felt a jolt of heat from the contact. She blushed harder when Scorpius settled himself down and grabbed her hand under the table, and his grin broadened when she shyly avoided his gaze and went back to eating lunch.
Al rolled his eyes at his best mate and cousin and shoved a spoonful of soup into his mouth.
Rose and Scorpius had been sort of dating since the beginning of November, but the only person who actually knew about them dating was Al. It wasn't that the two were hiding their relationship per se, they were just taking things slow and they didn't want to announce it to everyone until they had a bit of time to understand if they were in a relationship. Since both Rose and Scorpius were rather shy and private individuals, they were very secretive about their displays of affection.
If anyone had been paying close attention to the two, they would have noticed that Rose and Scorpius were spending a lot of time together without Al accompanying them. Lucky for the new couple, no one really seemed to be paying them close attention.
Rose knew that she should tell her brother, her parents, and her other family members soon about her new understanding with Scorpius, but she was still holding off. In her mind she had set a time limit. She was going to enjoy her new relationship with Scorpius for one month to see where it would go when they were left to their own devices. After a month, they were going to tell their families. They had four more days until their one month anniversary, and then their secret would be out.
"I think you two are more bloody ridiculous than Norah and Freddie," Al commented as he stirred his soup spoon around his bowl.
Scorpius and Rose's heads both turned to glare at Al, "No we're not."
"Uh huh," Al agreed sarcastically, "Then you lot wouldn't mind if I did join you in the library today for our free period after lunch."
"Go ahead," Rose challenged.
Scorpius just sent his friend a stern look that made Al chuckle.
"Oh dear, I just remembered that I promised to help Alice with her Transfiguration essay, so I guess I won't be able to join you in the library," Al mused, bringing his spoon back up to his mouth.
The three friends ate in silence for a few more minutes before a commotion a little bit down the Gryffindor table distracted them.
Closer to the front of the Great Hall, just a few metres from Al, Rose, and Scorpius, it seemed that Norah was once again stuck under a sprig of red mistletoe. Freddie had readily offered to be her knight in shining armour, but instead of accepting his help she was cussing him out, as well as throwing in some Greek swear words that Selene must have taught her.
"Piss off Weasley," Norah snapped at Freddie when he tried to put a hand on her shoulder. She had to bite her cheek to hold in a smile, so Freddie kept ribbing her in an attempt to make her smile break free.
While Norah and Freddie kept arguing with each other (or flirting as most people saw it), some of their fellow classmates had decided that they were getting tired of the scenes they kept putting on. Alice Longbottom strolled up the length of the table and stopped behind Rose.
"Circe this is getting old. Would one of you boys please just go up there and kiss Norah so that the rest of us could get on with lunch?" Alice asked of Al and Scorpius.
A blonde brow rose up on Scorpius's pale forehead, but he didn't verbally reply.
Instead, Scorpius, Alice, and even Rose all turned to look expectantly at Al.
"No," Al said immediately.
Alice made a tutting noise, "C'mon Al. Do it for Norah's sake, she's gotten through half the day already without having to kiss Freddie. It would suck for her to have to give in now."
Al muttered something angrily under his breath, but he stood up from the bench and stomped over to where Norah was still stuck under some red mistletoe.
When she saw Albus coming towards her Norah exclaimed, "Oh thank Godric Potter. Get over here."
Al frowned but kept walking until he was under the mistletoe with Norah. He stood still while she did most of the work. She leaned towards him to kiss him on the lips, and after a brief count to three Al moved back and stepped away from Norah.
Once he was able to see that the kiss had worked and Norah was free, Al hightailed it out of there before Freddie could complain dramatically about his own blood betraying him.
Norah was able to avoid most of the mistletoe the rest of the day, and she only had to kiss about two other strangers before the day of classes had mercifully ended. She retreated straight to Gryffindor common room once classes were finished, and she hunkered down there for the rest of the night. Fortunately for Norah, she had some good friends that agreed to bring her dinner so that she wouldn't have to leave the common room and risk getting caught under mistletoe several more times.
Around eight o'clock that evening Norah thought that she had finally succeeded in avoiding having to kiss Freddie. She decided to call it a night, and she and her friends went to stand up from the table they had been doing their homework at. The rest of her friends were able to stand up from their chairs, but Norah did not. She was stuck to her chair.
Norah groaned in defeat and glanced up at the ceiling, "You've got to be kidding me."
Attached to the ceiling above her head was a sprig of red mistletoe.
She hit her head against the table and groaned again just as Freddie popped up beside her.
"You called?"
Norah jumped a little at Freddie's sudden appearance by her side, when she last saw him he was all the way on the other side of the room sitting in an arm chair near the fireplace and playing exploding snap with James. He'd gotten over to her very quickly.
"No, I don't believe I did," Norah told him loftily. She tried to look as haughty as she could, but it was difficult when she was stuck sitting down in a chair with Freddie towering over her.
Freddie leered at her, "C'mon Norah, just one little kiss and I'll destroy the mistletoe right now, and you won't have to worry about it for the rest of the Christmas season."
"Or you could destroy it now and I won't have to recommend that Professor Longbottom give you yet another detention," Selene warned her teammate from where she was sitting on a couch with her friend Teagan.
Freddie waved off her threats and turned his attention back to Norah, "So what do you say Norah? Just one little kiss on the lips."
"Wouldn't you rather I kiss you because I want to and not because a piece of magical plant is forcing me to?" Norah asked.
He shrugged, "I'd be good with a magical-plant-induced kiss the first time, and then you continuing to kiss me afterwards because you can't get enough."
Alice and Al who were doing their homework at another table both made gagging noises, and over from his spot near the fireplace James called over to Selene and asked her if she was allowed to give Freddie detention for making the rest of the common room want to vomit.
Freddie retorted back that if she could do that James and his girlfriend would be living in detention, and from where she was sitting with a group of her girlfriends on the other side of the common room Mélanie blew James a kiss.
"Just get out of my space will you Weasley?" Norah asked Freddie sweetly.
"Ugh, this is getting so bloody old," Alice groaned from the table behind the pair.
Alice unceremoniously stood up from her seat, walked over to Norah, and then leaned forward and planted a firm kiss on her lips.
When Alice pulled away everyone was staring at the two girls with wide eyes, and Alice flicked her hair over her shoulder before going back to the table she was sharing with Al, sitting down and picking up her textbook like she'd never left.
"Bloody Hell," Freddie muttered quietly as he stared between Norah and Alice with surprise.
Norah looked rather surprised herself, but not so much that she didn't take the out she was given. She immediately got up from her seat, swerved around Freddie, and then escaped up the staircase to the girls' dormitory, her friends giggling and following behind her.
Freddie shook his head as if to clear it, and then looked up at the mistletoe that was still on the ceiling above the chair Norah had vacated.
"Oh well. There's always tomorrow."
However, it turned out that Norah and Alice weren't the only ones fed up with Freddie's red mistletoe.
Selene got up from her seat on the couch and strode over to where Freddie stood, "We're done with the red mistletoe now, alright?"
She didn't wait for an answer, instead she pulled out her wand and tried to vanish the mistletoe. When it wouldn't work she tried to summon it to her. She tried three other spells before she noticed that Freddie was smirking at her. She took his grin to mean that she probably needed to remove the mistletoe by hand or something else stupid like that, so she stepped onto a chair from the other side of the table and then used it to help her climb up onto of the top of table.
Selene then walked over to where the mistletoe was stuck on the ceiling, and she stretched up on her tiptoes to reach it. Unfortunately, even on her tiptoes she couldn't reach the plant. It was still a few feet out of her reach.
When Selene got on top of the table James stood up from his chair near the fireplace and walked over to where she stood on the table.
"Need some help?" James asked Selene concernedly.
Since he was newly cognizant of the fact that she was afraid of heights, he couldn't help but pick up on the slight tremble in her legs when she stretched her muscles as far as they would go. She was only a metre and a bit off the floor when she was on the table, but apparently it was enough to make her body start to shake.
Selene declined his offer, "No, I'm just going to levitate the table up to help me reach the mistletoe."
Before James could voice his question of 'with you on it?', Selene pulled her wand out, pointed it at the table, muttered a levitation spell, and then slowly began to rise closer to the ceiling. She had one hand pointed down with her wand, while the other was stretched above her head trying to reach the mistletoe.
James grimaced as he watched her slowly rise up to the ceiling, and he studied her closely to see if she was starting to shake or not. She did look a little wobbly the higher up she got, but if anyone else had been looking at her they probably wouldn't have noticed. In fact, Freddie was watching Selene with a slightly detached expression on his face as if she was some sort pet doing a trick. He definitely wasn't seeing the slight tremble in her hand as she kept reaching for the mistletoe.
When Selene finally got close enough to the mistletoe, she grabbed it tightly and was pleased to see that she was able to remove it without needing a spell. She quickly directed the table back down to the floor, but in her haste to get back on the ground her spell work ended up being a little less than smooth.
The table wobbled a little as it landed, and James instantly reached out to put his hands on her calves to help steady her. Selene immediately dropped the mistletoe when the table landed on the floor, and her legs began to shake. James's hands on her legs helped steady her, but not before she reached out to try to steady herself with the first thing she could find at arm's length.
It turned out that the only thing at arm's length ended up being James head, and Selene found herself accidently grabbing a handful of his hair and narrowly avoiding shoving her thumb into his left eye as she tried to steady herself.
"Ow."
"Oops. Sorry James," Selene apologized.
She immediately released James's head when she was finally steady on top of the table, and he let go of her calves directly after she freed his head.
Freddie snickered at the entertaining scene James and Selene made, until Selene rounded on him with a glare and a pointed finger, "Do I need a specific spell to destroy this?"
The redhead glanced down at the red and green plant that had fallen to Selene's feet, "It's got a special password phrase that turns it off."
"Then what is it?"
Freddie put his finger up to his lips, "Hmm, I don't think I should tell you."
Selene glared at him and tried to take a step closer to him to help her intimidation factor, but she found her feet glued to the wooden tabletop. Freddie watched her closely and grinned when he realized that the mistletoe at her feet was stopping her from moving.
"You know it's been a late night-"
"Freddie," Selene said in a warning tone.
He ignored her, "So I think I'm going to hit the hay, 'night all!"
Freddie then dashed out of the common room and towards the staircase for the boys' dormitories as fast as his feet would take him.
Selene was livid, "FREDERICK I DON'T KNOW YOUR MIDDLE NAME WEASLEY-"
"Alastor," James supplied helpfully.
"FREDERICK ALASTOR WEASLEY! GET YOUR BUTT BACK DOWN HERE NOW!"
James sighed sadly, "I don't think you're going to get him back down here."
"I figured that," Selene muttered angrily as she pinched the bridge of her nose in irritation.
James looked around them a little awkwardly before pointing at the red mistletoe at her feet, "Uh . . . need some help there?"
Selene glanced down at the mistletoe and then back up at James. Her face went red, "You wouldn't happen to know the password would you?"
"I doubt it," James replied rubbing the back of his neck, "I'll try, but it could take a while."
He looked back at Selene and noticed that her knees seemed a little wobbly, and he belatedly realized that she was still standing on top of the table, and that she couldn't move because of the mistletoe's spell.
"We, uh, we should get you down from there," James muttered embarrassedly and mostly to himself.
He cleared his throat, climbed up onto a chair, and then on top of the table next to Selene.
Her blush deepened and James inelegantly closed the distance between them until there was only about half a foot of space between their bodies.
"I . . . uh . . . I'm going to kiss you . . . if that's alright?" James asked her embarrassedly.
Selene's entire face and neck were red with her own embarrassment, but she nodded her head in agreement. The practical side of her brain knew that she needed to let someone kiss her on the lips if she ever wanted to get down from that damned table.
James leaned forward first and, and they both closed their eyes just as their lips touched. He felt a flush of heat come over him, and his mind went unexpectedly blank as he felt his lips press softly against hers. She let out a quiet and surprised gasp as they kissed, and James pulled his lips away from hers when he realized that he'd allowed the kiss to go on longer than was strictly necessary to break the mistletoe's spell.
He didn't look Selene directly in the eye while he got down from the table, but he did when he held his hand out to help her down. She accepted his help with a quiet 'thank-you', and James noticed that her legs were shaky as she stepped from the table, to one of the chairs, and back down to the floor.
Selene turned to look back at the mistletoe on the table, and pulled her wand out. She calmly went about trying different phrases to make the mistletoe disappear. She did her best to try to come up with Freddie approved phrases, but her mind was in a bit of a jumble.
James was still standing next to her and he cleared his throat, "I've got a suggestion."
She looked up at him and nodded. His gaze locked with hers as he pulled out his wand and pointed it at the mistletoe.
"Norah fancies Freddie."
The words made the mistletoe glow a bright red before the red berries melted off of the green leaves and disappeared.
Selene scoffed, "Of course he made that the password."
James was just getting ready to say something cheeky in reply when he heard his name being called from across the common room. He turned his head and saw Mélanie staring at him with her arms crossed. Her face was stern but not enraged, so he wasn't entirely sure how much she saw of his interaction with Selene. James looked back at Selene to say goodbye –or apologize, he wasn't sure– and noticed that Selene was biting her lip apprehensively.
"Uh . . . see you later?"
His question was lame, but he didn't want to just leave without putting some sort of closure to their interaction.
Selene nodded at him, her lip still trapped between her teeth, and James spent another thirty-seconds staring at her and the damage she was doing to her bottom lip before he remembered that his girlfriend was waiting for him.
Friday, December 2nd 2022
2:30 PM
The next day James found himself being extra attentive to his girlfriend. He had woken up with an odd feeling of guilt in the pit of his stomach, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out why he felt so guilty. It turned out that Mélanie, Selene's friend Teagan, and the girlfriends Mélanie had been talking to, saw everything that happened between him and Selene. This meant that they saw the kiss, but they also saw everything leading up to the kiss, and Selene's friend Teagan along with a few of Mélanie's friends even commended James on how kind it was of him to help Selene out of the mistletoe trap.
Mélanie's right eye had twitched a little when the other girls mentioned it, but James was pretty sure that he had mostly imagined the tick, since a second later she had a bright smile on her face and was saying something about how Freddie needed to grow up.
They hadn't mentioned the incident again between them, but James still felt the need to be stuck to Mélanie's side the next day just to prove that she was the one he fancied and wanted to spend time with.
James was so attentive to Mélanie that he got in trouble for whispering to her during every class they had together that day.
"Mr. Potter," Professor Cooke called as he interrupted a whispered conversation that James and Mélanie were having during A History of Magic, "Since you seem eager to talk during my class, you might as well tell me how many laws about Muggleborn registration were passed in the Ministry of Magic during the summer of 1997?"
James swallowed thickly, "Seven."
Professor Cooke smiled at him, "Correct." He turned from James and faced the rest of the classroom, "Now, for ten house points, who can tell me how many people were convicted in the great sweep of the Ministry on May 5th 1998?"
Professor Cooke looked between James and Freddie specifically because this was the part of wizarding history he'd suspect that the two boys knew the most about. Both James and Freddie avoided Professor Cooke's gaze.
Two seats over from James, Selene Spiros raised her hand.
"Yes Miss Spiros?" Professor Cooke called on her.
"Fifty-three."
Professor Cooke smiled at her, "Correct Miss Spiros. Ten points to Gryffindor."
The remainder of class passed quickly, and James and Mélanie avoided talking throughout the rest of it. At the end of class when Professor Cooke let them all go, he called both Selene Spiros and Will Dyson to his desk and asked them to stay after class for a minute.
James held Mélanie's hand as they left the classroom, but James stopped just past the door. Mélanie turned and gave him a kiss on the cheek, and then she and one of her friends skipped off to their Ancient Runes study group. Freddie found James standing near the classroom door, and the redhead nodded his head towards the direction of the hallway that would take them to the moving staircases.
"Ready to go?" Freddie asked his dark haired cousin.
James shook his head, "You go ahead without me. I'm going to stay and wait for Selene."
Freddie raised an eyebrow at him, "Why?"
"I want to give her a heads up that there's going to be a scout from the Holyhead Harpies organization at our quidditch game against Ravenclaw tomorrow. The last time I didn't tell her about a scout coming to see her she got mad at me," James explained.
Freddie rolled his eyes and muttered, "Birds are so weird sometimes."
James shrugged his shoulders and then they were both quiet. A few minutes later Professor Cooke opened the classroom door, and two angry looking students walked out of the room. Will Dyson looked almost murderous as he stomped out of the room, while Selene looked both angry and heartbroken.
"What's wrong Selene?" James asked her the minute he read her expression.
Selene sighed heavily and crossed her arms over her chest, "Professor Cooke has suspended both Dyson and I from tomorrow's quidditch game."
James thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head in his surprise. His gaze flew to Professor Cooke, "What! Why?"
"Watch your tone Mr. Potter," Professor Cooke warned him.
Selene answered James's question, "Apparently earlier in the week when we handed in our essays on the last wizarding war, Professor Cooke found that both my essay and Dyson's essay were identical."
James frowned at her and he continued, "Therefore, until one of us admits to plagiarizing the other's essay, we are both suspended from tomorrow's game."
"That's ridiculous!" James exclaimed, "Professor Cooke you know Selene would never plagiarize another person's work! She doesn't need to, she's brilliant on her own!"
Professor Cooke sent James a stern look, "Both Miss Spiros and Mr Dyson are talented enough to produce O-level worthy school work, yes. Which makes the matter at hand all the more contemptable. One of them has clearly copied the other's work and put their own name on it. There were barely any differences in wording. They were almost word for word the same."
"Selene couldn't have copied Dyson's essay, Freddie and I worked on our essays with her after quidditch practice on the weekend. She even helped us edit our own work because she was so far ahead with hers," James added as he continued to defend his teammate.
Professor Cooke sighed, "I'm sorry Mr Potter, but the fact remains that I have two essays that are exactly the same in composition, but with two different people's names on them. They have the same introductions, body paragraphs, conclusions, heck they have the same small numerical mistakes."
Selene's eyebrows narrowed over her eyes at Professor Cooke's words, "What numerical mistakes?"
"I don't think it's quite the time to argue over every little mark Selene," Freddie told her drolly.
She ignored him, "What numerical mistake did I make in my essay?"
Professor Cooke sighed but replied, "You wrote that there were a recorded 237 initiated Death Eaters arrested in the two weeks after the last battle when the number listed in the textbooks is actually 201."
"But the correct number is actually 237, I wrote down 201 originally but both Freddie and James corrected me when I mentioned that they had the wrong numbers written down in their essays. They said that most textbooks had the numbers wrong because they don't usually count the raids in Northern Ireland in their numbers," Selene explained.
She had been confused with the number switch at first as well when James and Freddie pointed out that they had a different statistic than the textbook did, but she figured that when it came to the last wizarding war it would make sense to listen to her two classmates. They definitely had more inside information than the textbook did. In the end, she added the number James and Freddie told her, even though she knew there was a chance that Professor Cooke might go by the number in the textbook. She decided that being factually correct was worth having a mark or two taken off because Professor Cooke was going by a textbook instead of something else.
Professor Cooke frowned, "I noticed after the fact that both Mr Potter and Mr Weasley had the same number mistake in their essays, but I assumed it was because you had all inadvertently checked the same textbook out of the library while you were doing your research."
"No," James corrected Professor Cooke, "The library textbooks had the same number of 201. We added the number 237 because that's what we were always told, and we told Selene the number because we wanted her to have the correct information."
"Did you ever give Mr Dyson that information?" Professor Cooke asked James and Freddie.
Both boys emphatically shook their heads.
Professor Cooke turned to Will Dyson, "Then how did you find the number 237 Mr Dyson? Did you ask any of the other members of the Potter or Weasley family for their help?"
"No. I – I must have found it in one of the textbooks-" Will Dyson tried to defend himself.
Professor Cooke frowned at him, "And you found this information in a textbook that none of your other classmates found, and yet it was the same information that Mr Potter and Mr Weasley had told Miss Spiros?"
"I-I-I-" Will Dyson tried to come up with an excuse but he was coming up short.
Professor Cooke looked at Selene, "Miss Spiros, did you plagiarize Mr Dyson's essay?"
"No Sir."
"And you wrote down what number of Death Eaters in your essay?"
"237, a number I received from James and Freddie, but could not find in any textbook," Selene insisted.
Professor Cooke looked back at Will Dyson, "And Mr Dyson, which textbook did you find the number 237 in then?"
"I . . . uh . . . I-"
For a Ravenclaw he was a bit of a slow thinker.
Professor Cooke frowned, "Mr Dyson, I think you and I need to have a long talk." He looked back at Selene, "And Miss Spiros, I am going to lift your quidditch suspension. You are allowed to play tomorrow."
"Thank you Professor," Selene replied gratefully.
Professor Cooke nodded at her and then glanced at James and Freddie, "Is 237 actually the most accurate number?"
James nodded, "Yup. You can even owl Victoire and ask her. I'm sure she'd be happy to pull out her old notes and list the name of every one of those 237 arrested Death Eaters to you. She's weird like that."
Professor Cooke muttered something under his breath like 'no kidding' and then directed Will Dyson back into the classroom.
Selene turned to James and Freddie and grinned at them, "Thank you two so much for helping me out."
"Of course," James replied right away, "I can't have my best chaser suspended from a game when there's going to be a scout from the Holyhead Harpies there specifically to see her, now can I?"
Selene ignored the compliment he gave her in favour of glaring at him, "There's a scout from the Holyhead Harpies coming tomorrow and you're just telling me now!"
Freddie grinned and slowly walked away as James defended himself.
"I just found out myself okay? Mum mentioned it in passing in a letter to me this morning that she had heard from an old teammate that a scout was coming to the game tomorrow," James explained.
Selene sighed, "I guess that's okay then." She then let a genuine smile slip onto her face, "Thanks for telling me."
James grinned back, "You're welcome."
6:45 PM
Rose and Al were walking back to Gryffindor tower after dinner when a strong pair of arms wrapped around Rose from behind and squeezed her tight.
She let out an 'eeek' sounding scream, and she spun around and punched the chest of the man who was holding her.
"Don't scare me like that Scorpius!"
Scorpius Malfoy chuckled at her and laughingly kissed her temple, "Sorry Love."
Rose blushed scarlet at the pet name, and Al rolled his eyes at the two. He wished them both goodnight and then went off down the hall in the direction towards Gryffindor tower.
Once he was gone Scorpius released his hold on Rose until he was just holding her hand. They walked down the corridor in the opposite direction of Gryffindor tower, and Rose raised an eyebrow when she realized that Scorpius was directing her to the astronomy tower.
"It's a little too early to stargaze don't you think?" Rose asked him cheekily.
The blonde rolled his eyes at her, a fond smile on his face, "C'mon Rose, you're a prefect. You should know better than anyone that when people go to the astronomy tower outside of astronomy class hours, that it's to do almost the exact opposite of stargazing."
"And what exactly is this exact opposite of stargazing that you think I'm going to agree to do with you?" Rose quipped as he pulled her up the stairs of the tower.
Scorpius was somehow able to shrug his shoulders elegantly, "Well I did my best not to get too far ahead of myself, so my imagination only went as far as a bit of light snogging."
Rose blushed at his words, but allowed him to tug her up the last two steps and into the Astronomy room with him.
"You do realize that your present attempt to come off as smooth is actually making you seem cliché, right?" Rose asked Scorpius in a tone of forced nonchalance. She hoped that keeping him talking would make it harder for him to notice that her heart had started to beat at double the speed.
He grinned widely at her as he pulled her across the otherwise empty tower room, "And yet, you haven't pulled your hand away from mine or told me to get lost yet."
"Maybe I just want to see how many cliché's you're planning on using before I tell you to jog on," She countered, all the while still allowing him to direct her over to the largest window in the room.
Scorpius gave her a heart stopping smile, and gestured to the image of the setting sun that was beautifully visible from the window, "Well if I can convince you to stay long enough to see the stars I can offer you some very cheesy lines about how your eyes twinkle, or how your smile reminds me of the constellation Lyra."
"If I thought that you could actually get through a few of those comparisons with a straight face I'd insist on hearing every single one you could come up with," Rose replied cheekily.
He chuckled and then put his hands on Rose's shoulders. He turned her so that see was looking out at the sunset, wrapped his arms around her waist, pulled her back so that her back was against his chest, and then he gently settled his chin on her right shoulder.
"What I will say, and with complete sincerity mind you, is that this sunset does remind me of you."
Rose stiffened a little, "I swear to Godric if you're about to make a ginger joke-"
"Settle down woman, I'm not going to make a lame joke at the expense of your natural hair colour," Scorpius interrupted, "Now let me complement you already."
She sighed, "Alright, go for it."
"Thank you," Scorpius replied happily. He then cleared his throat and whispered into her right ear, "This sunset reminds me of you –not because of your hair– but because of its ethereal duality. It seems enchanted, almost dreamlike with its bright blazing colours, yet at the same time it's reliable, an everyday occurrence . . ."
"So you're saying that I'm both enchanting and common?" Rose questioned him curiously.
Scorpius exhaled heavily and rolled his eyes even though she couldn't see him since he was still behind her, "Would you let me finish?"
"I don't think I should considering what I've already heard-"
Halfway through her objection Scorpius grabbed Rose by the shoulders, spun her around, and then planted a firm kiss on her lips, stopping her sentence only half finished.
He released her quickly and then let go of her shoulders, "Was that clear enough?"
Rose took a deep breath to try to steady her rapidly beating heart, "More or less."
"If it is less, I'd be happy to further clarify the matter," Scorpius answered almost disinterestedly.
A dark red eyebrow rose up on Rose's forehead, "Are you back to trying to be smooth? I thought we just established that you're awfully cliché when it comes to attempted romantic sentiments."
"So we've already reached your limit of romantic clichés then? I haven't even attempted any of the gift clichés of flowers or poetry, let alone finished with the romantic dribble clichés."
Rose shook her head at him with slight exasperation, "Really? Are we both just going to go on pretending then that it wasn't you who sent me those anonymous flowers last Valentine's Day?"
"Well that depends," Scorpius replied with a smirk, "What are the chances that Al didn't spill my secret about said flowers?"
"He was pretty tight-lipped about it until a few weeks ago when I guessed that it must have been you who sent them, and he replied to my assumption."
Scorpius chuckled, "Well I guess then that I can't hold it against him, if he was able to keep it a secret until you figured it out that is."
Rose slowly wrapped her arms around Scorpius's waist and have him a hug, "I was never able to properly thank you for those, so thank you."
"You're welcome."
"But if you sent me those flowers last Valentine's Day, then why did you wait until last month to tell me how you felt?" Rose questioned him inquisitively.
Scorpius sighed and squeezed his arms tightly around her in response, "I had a sudden fit of bravery for about three hours before I realized that I couldn't admit it yet. I was very glad that I sent them anonymously instead of sticking my name to them. I definitely couldn't have been able to be who I need to be for you right now, last February. I was just discovering my feelings, but I was still too afraid to do much about it. I'm sorry that I got your hopes up like that-"
"The flowers were pretty, but a bouquet full of daisies didn't exactly get my hopes up that someone was about to declare their intense undying love for me," Rose told him with a slight eye roll.
He chuckled again, "Okay fair enough."
"But I did like them more than whatever lame sunset comparison you were about to make," She added.
Scorpius groaned, "Ugh, I get it. You don't like anything that could be considered cheesy, I'll do my best to avoid it from now on."
Rose blushed, but she decided to voice the words that suddenly popped into her head, "That kiss was very comprehensive though. And much more preferable to listening to you stumble through some other line that you think is smooth."
"I'll keep that in mind," He responded, slowly inching his face closer to hers, "So I take that blushing admission to mean that you'd be amenable to more kisses in lieu of pretty words?"
"Very much so."
Rose and Scorpius closed the distance between their lips once more, and they didn't separate again until a little later when they both felt themselves getting light headed. They grinned at each other when they pulled away, and Scorpius thought that he'd change the atmosphere in the room just a little so that Rose didn't get too worried about how serious the air between them suddenly seemed
"Ready for your big day tomorrow?" Scorpius asked her softly, a small smile coming to his face.
Rose scowled adorably and rested her head against Scorpius's chest, "No. Why did I allow James and Al to convince me to do this again?"
Scorpius chuckled, "Because you love quidditch, even if you've never agreed to play for your house team before."
She muttered something under her breath, but she didn't verbally contradict him.
"And," Scorpius continued, a touch of amusement in his tone, "More importantly, you love your family. You know that James needs to look good to the quidditch scouts this year if he wants a serious offer from a professional team by the end of the school year, and you know that having a good keeper will help with that."
Rose muttered something again, but nodded her head.
"And you know that you're much better than just a good keeper," Scorpius finished.
The redhead blushed a little, but she smiled genuinely, "Well even if I did know that, how do you? You've never seen me play quidditch before, let alone keeper."
"I haven't personally seen you play, but Al has and he thinks you're rather good," The blonde explained.
"Perhaps he's lying just to psyche you out, you are on an opposing quidditch team after all."
"I'm a seeker on the Slytherin quidditch team, and your first game tomorrow is against Ravenclaw, not my team."
Rose smiled, "Fair point."
"I still think you'll do a fantastic job," Scorpius told her.
"I'd be happy doing just an okay job long enough for James and Selene to score some points, and for Al to catch the snitch," Rose admitted.
Scorpius chuckled, "I think you'll definitely be able to do at least that."
She slapped his arm, but the effort behind it was half-hearted at best, "I thought that being my boyfriend meant that you were supposed to support me and puff up my ego when needed?"
"That depends," He replied, a sudden and blinding smile broke across his face, "If we agree that we are officially the colloquial definition of boyfriend and girlfriend –which I haven't yet been able to get out of you by the by– then I will most definitely be your biggest supporter tomorrow, and every day after that."
Rose smiled shyly, but she considered her next reply rather bold, "Then I guess you'd better find yourself some Gryffindor gear to wear to the game tomorrow. Alice'll be doing face paint in the Great Hall at breakfast tomorrow, and Norah or Selene could always add some red or gold dye to your hair if you'd like."
"I will wear whatever you want me to wear and paint whatever part of my body you want, if it means that I'll be able to officially call you my girlfriend in public on Monday. The one month anniversary since we started quote-unquote dating," Scorpius responded with a smile.
Rose blushed, "I've already started drafting a letter that I'm going to send to my parents on Monday to let them know about our . . . relationship."
"Really?"
"Really."
Scorpius suddenly picked Rose up and spun her around in a circle. She giggled in response, and didn't stop until Scorpius pressed a kiss against her laughing mouth.
A/N: How did we like this chapter? Did you enjoy finally seeing some progress with Rose and Scorpius's relationship? What about the new intimacy between James and Selene?
Next Chapter: I have it finished we're back to the main wizarding world. You will see some more work on Teddy's case, and we will see the direct fallout from Rose informing her family about her dating Scorpius. In addition, we will hear a little about how Cecilia's doing, and some surprising news from Dom.
Next Update: It will be posted in two weeks.
The rest of the story: I've been roughly planning out the rest of the story, and I realized that I should give you guys a heads up about how much is left. I estimate between 12-15 chapters left to this story, which means the action is heating up, and we're going to start getting a lot of answer to questions and loose ends that are hanging around. There's still lots of drama left as you guys can probably guess, but we are coming closer to the close of this story.
Teaser for Next Chapter:
Victoire's eyes were dry and her head was pounding, so she was brief in her reply, "I came to give Teddy a file. He just told me about Rose's good news."
"Good news?" Ron challenged.
Even to Victoire's tired brain, she could hear the heavy sarcasm.
I want to sincerely thank everyone who has followed, favourited, read, and reviewed this story. Thank you, for staying with me even though the writing and updating process hasn't been as quick as either of us wanted.
BIG thank yous as always to:
lumiere100, carbo21, Break This Spell626, fangirl5300, Guest (1), cjaben1, ntlpurpolia, RebekahGrace, MuggleCreator, Lostinwords23, rosesnlilies, mazzmataz, Girl From Another World, Katia0203, Izzy, teddyvictoire'slovechild, Jennifer Jules, silverlover02, Guest (2), and kawaiiotaku0405.
lumiere100: Still shipping James and Selene?
carbo21: I'm glad you caught onto the little clues about Katie I'd sprinkled throughout the story. It makes her reveal last chapter a little less shocking.
Break This Spell626: I'm glad you weren't too angry with Oliver.
fangirl5300: I'm glad the story's caught your imagination so well. I've definitely thought about a few of your suggestions, so you'll just have to wait and see if they end up making it into it or not.
Guest (1): There will be little bits of Lily in some of the remaining chapters, but this story doesn't have a big storyline for her, so she won't be a very big character. However, that doesn't mean that she won't have a bigger storyline in another story.
cjaben1: Did this chapter live up to expectations?
ntlpurpolia: Don't worry, Eli's not getting away very easily.
mazzmataz: I'm glad you're caught up.
RebekahGrace: I don't think anybody would want to go up against that group.
Lostinwords23: I'm glad you picked up the Katie-Eli interactions pieces earlier in the story.
rosesnlilies: I'm glad you're not too angry at Cecilia, and don't worry, Oliver's going to make sure the Eli doesn't get off too easily.
Girl From Another World: Thank you for your kind words.
Katia0203: Was the refresher at the beginning enough?
Izzy: Louis is going to have a chance to talk to Martell, don't worry about that.
Jennifer Jules: I'm glad that you enjoyed last chapter so much. I worked hard to get the right tone into it, and I'm glad that I didn't under or over-shoot it.
I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter,
Please leave me any questions or comments in a review of PM!
Until next time, DFTBA!
